All Major MVP Winners in CS History

The MVP award at a Counter-Strike Major carries a weight that no regular tournament accolade can match. It marks the player whose individual performance most decisively shaped a world championship — a single gold medal in a sport where team credit is shared and individual glory is hard to isolate. Across more than two decades of CS competition, only a handful of players have earned that distinction, and fewer still have earned it more than once.

CS2 Major MVP Winners (2023–Present)

Counter-Strike 2 launched competitively in late 2023, and the three Majors held so far have each produced a defining individual story: a breakthrough Lithuanian rifler, a teenage Russian prodigy, and France's most decorated active player cementing his legacy.

PGL Copenhagen 2024 MVP

The player many thought was brought to NAVI for the chemistry rather than the firepower, Justinas "jL" Lekavicius, became the first-ever cs2 mvp at the inaugural CS2 Major in Copenhagen. NAVI entered that tournament ranked sixth in the world and widely regarded as a transitional roster following s1mple's departure. jL's ability to turn it on in pivotal moments — including a 1v3 clutch that sealed Map 1 of the grand final against FaZe Clan — proved essential to NAVI lifting the trophy. His heroics in the final against FaZe, particularly on Inferno, made him the first Lithuanian player to ever earn a Major MVP.

The Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024 followed in November and produced one of the most remarkable individual performances the game has ever seen. 17-year-old Team Spirit player Danil "donk" Kryshkovets was named the tournament's MVP, making him the highest-rated and youngest Major MVP ever, breaking the record previously held by Markus "Kjaerbye" Kjærbye from Atlanta 2017. His tournament rating was a staggering 1.49 — a benchmark that reframed expectations for mechanical output in CS2.

Austin Major CS2 MVP

At the BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025, Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut was named the tournament's MVP, receiving his second such award and becoming the third player to be awarded MVP in multiple Majors, after also receiving it at the Paris Major. The French AWPer posted a 1.42 rating across 13 maps, the highest at the tournament, and his contribution to Team Vitality's victory was decisive. At just 24 years old, ZywOo earned his 27th career MVP title across all events, a number that positions him as one of the most consistently dominant performers in CS history.

CS:GO Major MVPs: Full List (2013–2023)

Nineteen CS:GO Majors took place across a decade. The table below covers every cs go major mvp from the first event in Jönköping to the final in Paris:

Most MVP Awards by Player

Marcelo "coldzera" David was the first player in CS:GO history to win multiple Major MVPs, claiming the award at both MLG Columbus 2016 and ESL One Cologne 2016. That record held for several years until dev1ce matched it with wins at FACEIT London 2018 and StarLadder Berlin 2019. ZywOo has since surpassed both, becoming the outright leader in the CS2 era with three Major MVP awards across Paris 2023, Austin 2025, and PGL Antwerp 2022 — the only player to have won the award in both CS:GO and CS2 Majors.

Most MVP Awards by Country

France leads the all-time Major MVP count, with ZywOo alone accounting for three awards and kennyS having contributed a fourth in the CS:GO era. Denmark produced a concentrated era of dominance through Astralis — dev1ce (two awards) and Magisk (one) — making it the strongest single-organisation contribution by country. Sweden produced three different MVPs in the early CS:GO era: JW, olofmeister, and flusha, all from Fnatic.

Most MVP Awards by Team / Organisation

Fnatic holds the record for the most distinct Major MVP recipients from a single roster: JW, olofmeister, and flusha all earned the award during the Swedish dynasty's run from 2013 to 2015. Astralis produced three MVP winners from roughly the same core lineup — Kjaerbye, dev1ce, and Magisk — across four Major titles between 2017 and 2019. Team Vitality currently stands alone as the only organisation to have the same player (ZywOo) win the Major MVP award in both CS:GO and CS2.

How the Major MVP Is Decided

MVP Voting Criteria & Process

The Major MVP award is determined by HLTV and based on a combination of statistical performance and match impact. Raw numbers — rating, K/D ratio, ADR — form the baseline, but what separates MVP candidates from strong performers is impact in decisive matches. A player who posts an elite rating in group stages but disappears in the final carries less weight than one who elevates their output precisely when elimination is on the line.

Key metrics evaluated include:

• Overall HLTV rating across all tournament stages
• Performance in elimination and playoff matches
• Clutch conversion rate and 1vX outcomes
• Opening duel win rate and entry fragging efficiency
• Team dependency — how much the team's round win rate shifts when the player underperforms

The award is given to the player whose individual contribution most clearly influenced the outcome of the tournament, not necessarily the player with the highest raw statistics. The distinction matters — ZywOo won the Austin MVP with a 1.42 rating even though apEX outrated him in the grand final itself, because ZywOo's impact across all 13 maps was the more comprehensive body of work.

MVP vs. Tournament Champions

One of the less obvious points in CS is that the cs2 major mvp and the tournament champion are not always the same person, or even close to it. The MVP belongs to the player who most visibly carried their team to the title. When a team wins collectively — no single player pulling far above the others — the award tends to go to the clutch performer or the player who stepped up in the semifinal or final specifically.

The clearest example of this dynamic was Copenhagen 2024, where jL's MVP over w0nderful and Aleksib came down to his irreplaceable clutch moments under maximum pressure, despite the team as a whole being well-balanced. Contrast that with donk at Shanghai 2024, where the 1.49 rating made the decision straightforward — there was no debate to be had.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who Has the Most CS Major MVPs?

Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut currently holds the record with three Major MVP awards — PGL Antwerp 2022, BLAST Paris 2023 (the last CS:GO Major), and BLAST Austin 2025 (CS2). Coldzera and dev1ce each won two during the CS:GO era.

Who Won the CS2 MVP at Austin Major?

Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut was named MVP of the BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025, earning his second CS2 Major MVP title after BLAST Paris 2023. He led Team Vitality to a 2–1 victory over The MongolZ in the grand final.

What Is the Difference Between CS:GO and CS2 MVPs?

The criteria are functionally identical — HLTV evaluates statistical performance and match-deciding impact regardless of which version of the game is being played. The main structural difference is that CS2 Majors use MR12 (12 rounds per half) instead of MR15, which compresses match data slightly but doesn't change how the award is weighted. The transition from CS:GO to CS2 in 2023 effectively reset team rankings without resetting the historical MVP ledger — ZywOo's CS:GO awards count toward his all-time total alongside his CS2 ones.